Nau mai, Haere mai - welcome.

Ensure the government systems supports single parent families, specifically by:

• Reframing state responsibilities for single parents towards protection not investigation and ensuring an intersectional lens is applied across all agencies.

• Reframing childcare from being a private profit-making venture to a public good.

• Improving interagency coordination, collaboration and communication by identifying barriers to interagency coordination, collaboration and communication at all levels; and continuing to establish and/or promote protocols, guidelines and systems between relevant agencies and service providers nationally, regionally and locally for information sharing and coordination of services.

• Redefining Sole Parent Support from a weekly payment that helps single parents find part-time work or get ready for future work to a weekly payment that supports Single Parents to parent their children.

• Recognising that children are now a more ‘precious commodity’ i.e., we have lower rates of childbirth and ensuring policies are reflective of valuing children.

• Acknowledging that gender-based violence and harassment disproportionately affects women and girls, and recognise that an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach, which tackles underlying causes and risk factors, including gender stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations, is essential to ending violence and harassment in our society and enabling single parent whanau to thrive.

Ministry of Justice

• Creating a more whanau centred family court approach as outlined in recommendation by The Child Poverty Action Group. (CPAG).

Treasury

• Applying an intersectional gender lens across all government budgets — this needs to be actioned as a matter of urgency.

Commerce Commission

• Encouraging the Commerce Commission to investigate single parent discrimination in renting.

IRD changes - to support single parents by:

• Removing secondary tax on the Single Parent benefit

• Updating the KiwiSaver criteria to remove the need for both parents/caregivers to sign children up for KiwiSaver.

• Updating tax policies to ensure childcare can be claimed as expenses for tax purposes (this will benefit all parents).

• Scoping the inclusion of a KiwiSaver contribution as part of the Single Parent benefit.

Ministry of Social Development

• Apply benefit changes to support single parents by:

• Implementing all recommendations to Working for Families as outlined by The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)

• Changing relationship status policy on Single Parent benefit eligibility to be less restrictive, punitive and patriarchal.

• Changing abatements by allowing a longer period of time before removing entitlements to benefits and related subsides. This will enable Single Parents to build up capital and support.

• Adding child care subsidies to Single Parent benefits.

• Ensuring policies prioritise the ability for parents to actively parent their children.

• WINZ to scope funding single parent insurance -and /or providing interest free payment options

• Scoping the opportunity for WINZ to include funding for home and contents insurance as outlined in this report from CPAG.

Ministry of Justice

• Ensuring that single parents have easy access to legal aid and information, and are provided child care if they need to appear in court.

What is an action that can be taken immediately to support single parents?

Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)

• MBIE to ratify the IPO convention clause 190 Violence and Work which outlines recognising the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment.

• Ensuring the training of public servants (WINZ) towards protecting not investigating single parents and following the Domestic violence training as outlined in https://tepunaaonui.govt.nz/national-strategy/shift-3/

• Introducing KPIs for frontline workers based on whether Single parent clients are receiving all the relevant information they are entitled to in an easy- to -understand manner.

• Enabling Single Parents to attend WINZ interviews with their children.

• Creation of a ‘Navigators Portal’ an integrated portal for Single Parents to engage with all government agencies similar to the functionality exhibited in Smart Start.

• Creating Single Parent’s networks that operate similar to LGBTQI+ networks, within government agencies.

• Changing the Green eftpos card provided by WINZ to be less stigmatising.

• Promoting the MSD financial mentoring system to Single Parents.

• Training and ongoing support for policy makers, frontline staff, government officials and communities towards ensure Single Parent whanau are protected and have equal opportunities to thrive and the development of a nationwide single parent network.

Ministries for Women, MBIE, and Education.

• Aligning policy and action plans with the goals of the Women Employment Action Plan to include Single Parents.

• Ensuring enrolment forms, and other resources, for schools include single parent whanau.

Ministry of Justice.

• Family court to provide financial support acknowledging the psychological, technically time-consuming work, and childcare requirements for single parents' involvement in legal proceedings

Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

• Granting the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) statutory authority to monitor and address lenders’ financial inclusion policies and practices, including single parent borrowers.

Ensure businesses systems support single families, specifically by;

• Integrating flexible working policies by default.

• Ensuring a gender lens is applied to all workplace policies.

• Encourage employers to enact single parent inclusive HR policies

• Reporting and monitoring gender and ethnic pay gaps.

• Subscribing to and implementing the PSA Gender Pay Principles.

Employers to support single parents by:

• Creating flexible employment and providing or subsidising affordable childcare for single parents.

• Developing employer benefit schemes that provide flexible, cost-effective childcare is available for single parent families.

• Allowing employees to work during school hours and consider a ‘no meetings after 3pm rule’

• Allowing single parents to use sick leave to care for their children.

• Making it mandatory for employers to publish flexible working options for all roles.

• Implementing the Fair Pay legislation recommendations.

• Prioritise ‘Social” in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting.

Financial institutions

• Banks to consider child support payments as income when single parents apply for mortgage loans.

• Investigating insurance options for Single Parents especially 3rd party, health and contents insurance.

Media

• Promoting positive narratives of single parent families within the media and community.

• Sharing stories of for single parents by broadening the definition of ‘family’ to reflect modern whānau and incorporate single parent families.

• Sharing stories of the untapped potential of single parents- especially about underemployment and the untapped potential for businesses and government.

Employers

• Registering their gender pay gap on Mind The Gap.

• Registering their paid parental leave policies on The New Zealand Parental Leave Register.

• Ensuring that the hourly part-time pay rate is the equivalent of full-time hourly pay rate.

• Providing senior leadership roles on part-time/job-share basis.

• Creating single parent’s networks that operate similar to LGBTQI+ networks, within businesses.

• Providing financial wellness tools for single parents. Financial support should be less focused on budgeting – single parents know how to budget in many cases – financial support needs to be concentrated in other areas with a special focus on Māori. E.g. The Table

• Ensuring products and promotional materials reflect single parent families.

• Subscribing to and implementing the PSA Gender Pay Principles.

Housing

• Encouraging rental agencies to eradicate single parent discrimination.

Ensure communities support single parents, specifically by;

• Continuing to advocate for single parents' rights by addressing the prejudice and stigma towards single parent families by broadening the definition of ‘family’ to reflect modern whānau and incorporate single parent families.

• Actively supporting and championing single parents.

• Supporting a strengths-based campaign to celebrate the contribution of Single Parents to our society.

• Holding fathers to account for childcare responsibilities – while recognising a small proportion of single parents are fathers who also require support.

• Working with schools to improve after-school childcare schemes, and travel to and from school.

• Offering single parent family tickets for products, services and fees e.g., public pools, campgrounds.

• Ensuring products and promotional materials reflect single parent families.

• Encouraging SportNZ to fund after school sports with a focus on ensuring they are affordable for single parents.

• Partnering with intergenerational organisations to provide skills and knowledge trades, e.g. older people connect with single parents to provide home maintenance support.